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Young Adult: Themes 1211 Views


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Description:

Everything you read has a theme. Even this blurb has a theme. What is it? If we told you, you might not be curious enough to watch this video, and that would be a shame because we worked really, really hard on it.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Themes, a la Shmoop. What if a theme park… was really a theme

00:11

park?

00:12

You could ride a roller coaster that explores the loss of innocence.

00:16

Or take a terrifying ride up the Tower of Cultural Diversity.

00:19

Or maybe even go for a spin in the Teacups of Separation and Loss.

00:25

Yeah, so maybe themes are better suited to stories and essays than amusement park rides.

00:30

At least you don’t have to be a certain height to read a book. Usually.

00:35

A theme is, quite simply, the central idea explored in any piece of writing.

00:40

You need a theme; otherwise… what’s the purpose of writing anything at all?

00:45

You’d just be left with a story that meanders between completely unrelated characters or

00:50

plot points…

00:50

…or a paper that ambles from one disjointed argument to another.

00:54

Your teachers have read stuff like that… trust us. They’re not superfans.

00:59

Okay, so… that definition of the word is a fairly broad one.

01:05

We can narrow our focus a bit by concentrating on universal themes.

01:09

A universal theme is one that pops up so often in many different books…

01:15

…that it must be a concept that people are wrestling with in some way.

01:19

Good versus Evil… and Coming of Age… are two universal themes, for example.

01:25

The theme of… carrots being difficult to eat…

01:28

…well, that one doesn’t get a lot of play.

01:31

In fact, we’re pretty sure you’re the only one who’s having that problem.

01:37

Not universal. A couple of biggies are Individual versus

01:42

Society…

01:43

…and Individual versus Self. Individual versus Society comes up whenever

01:50

there’s a struggle between what an individual wants…

01:52

…and what society demands of him.

01:55

Like… if someone is passionately opposed to wearing pants in public.

02:00

Individual versus Self involves a similar struggle…

02:03

…but one that is taking place within the individual.

02:07

There probably isn’t a character with any self-imposed pant-wearing laws…

02:11

…but… say there’s a character who has dreams of moving to the big city to try to

02:15

become a professional triangle player…

02:18

…but she’s not sure they can bear to leave their small town behind.

02:27

No one is forcing them to do one thing or the other…

02:29

…society’s demands have nothing to do with it…

02:32

…it’s completely a personal decision. And all of the turmoil comes from within.

02:38

These are just a couple of examples.

02:40

As long as you can find a few million people concerned about a given topic…

02:45

…you’ve got yourself a universal theme.

02:51

And good luck with the carrot thing.

02:52

That’s gotta be rough.

02:53

Especially with it being… roughage.

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